Facebook's Russian Frenemy With Benefits

Taylor Buley
, ContributorNews developer, in all senses of the phraseOpinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.

If there's a Russian equivalent to the German word "doppelganger," Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg doesn't know what it is. Zuckerberg, who sued a German copycat last summer, has this summer made close ties with a Russian rip-off, vKontakte.

Moscow-based venture capitalist firm Digital Sky Technologies, sole investor in vKontakte, announced on Monday that it would buy up to $100 million in Facebook common stock. The deal is DST's second investment in Facebook this year, and, if fully subscribed, will give the Russian investment group a 3.5% stake in the Palo Alto, Calif.-based social network.

Zuckerberg's dealings with DST are a clear departure from how the executive handled other international competitors, namely the German social network StudiVZ. Last year, Facebook sued StudiVZ, alleging that it lifted its interface and Web page designs.

"StudiVZ has stolen not only Facebook's features, but also its look, its feel, its design, much of its Web site functionality, and other proprietary intellectual property such as style sheets," read Facebook's 112-page complaint. "The StudiVZ sites evince the blatant, unabashed and wholesale theft of Facebook's user interface and Web page designs."

German courts ruled in StudiVZ's favor: "Although there are overlaps and similarities between the two sites that are impossible to overlook, no dishonest copying could be established by the judge," the court said in a statement.

Facebook originally cited a news story that called StudiVZ a "clone" and "rip-off." That same publication later called out vKontakte: "The Russian Facebook makes no attempt to hide the fact that it's a clone," wrote Mashable's Adam Ostrow. "Vkontakte.ru almost exactly resembles Facebook's design."

The Russian knockoff has done well by its Facebook-like design: Following DST's first investment, Chief Executive Yuri Milner told Forbes that vKontakte is better-monetized per user than Facebook, and it is making money in a relatively poor country. (See "Facebook's New Perspective.")

VKontakte claims 35 million members and is Russia's second most-visited site, according to Alexa. Facebook has about a half-million users in the country, according to its advertising tool, and is Russia's 39th most-popular site.